The Farm.

Otago Witness, Issue 1342, 18 August 1877, Page 18

The Farm.

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A VISIT TO THB FARM OF MB HSBBSBT

The feeding of pigs is. a branch of farming carried on somewhat extensively in Canterbury. We have heard of only two farmers in Ofcago who feed pigs and care pork upon a large scale, and these are Mr Honor, of Papakai, and Mr Lees, of Waiareka, Mr Honor,, who is from Oxfordshire, England, purchased his farm of about five hundred acres nine years ago. The land is a rich black loam, with a good friable clay subsoiL ' Wheat is the principal crop grown, but a good deal of attention has been given to oats, peas, and mangolds, as well as English grass. -There were last year between four and five hundred pigs, of which about three .hundred were killed and cured. There are now about three hundred. Mr Honor has lately sold off his sheep and eighty head of cattle, intending, as wheat brings a good price, to break up his grass land, and sow largely of this crop— a speculation which may or may not turn out well.

The farm is at present but poorly provided with accommodation for the number of hogs on hand. They .are crowded to the number of forty or fifty in each pen, and, are not. well- housed. The sties are rather delapidated wooden structures, and the whole of the surroundings denote anything but comfort for the animals. The low. position of the ground occupied by the piggery is certainly not favourable to cleanliness, - especially in wet weather, and we doubt 'whether it is well selected.

In summer the pigs are allowed to run in clover paddocks, and in winter they are fed upon peas, pollard, and mangolds. Two or three months before killing, they are fed on crushed, peas and sharps, with bran. The killing commences in .June. Twenty-one are killed at a time, and the carcases are allowed to hang for one day. They are then cut up and salted away in concrete tanks. ; ,They are left in the pickle from fourteen to Bixteen days, being occasionaUyahiftedr^Thay aiethen salted down in a dry: -tankj ■ a little jsngar and alum being added: — Some or the Bides and hams are' smoked, and others are made up into rolls. One pig makes four rolls,, aU the bones being taken out. A good deal of this bacon is sold in Oamaru; but Dunedin is the principal market. . No carefully-planned system of rotation appears to be carried, out upon this farm. A good portion of the land under cultivation has been / subjected ' to successive crops of .wheat. The producing power of this land is certainly great, but under the system it must suffer. We greatly doubt whether the* profit on ' wheat "will compensate for Hie. loss of cattle and Bheep. Mr Honor informed us that' one paddock of forty acres, which for the last bine years bore wheat alternating, with peas, produced not less than forty bushels of wheat to the acre and fifty of peas.

There is a fine orchard .of three acres upon this farm, which last season produced £150 worth of fruit.

HONOR, PAPAKAI, OAMAKU.